Business: Bread & Circuses

To judge by the contraptions on view and the high-flown talk of motivation, it might have been a meeting of circus showmen or of sociologists. Instead, it was the annual meeting of the Super Market Institute, gathered in Atlantic City last week to demonstrate that today’s supermarket operators must be both showmen and sociologists to sell their goods. As choosy as shopping housewives, and twice as voluble, the 13,000 delegates wended their way through aisles crowded with 530 displays, talked about changes in the U.S. supermarket.

So fond is the shopper of gathering gossip along with the groceries that supermarket lounges are the coming thing. The Kroger chain (1,400 stores) is putting lounges in all its new supermarkets, with foam-rubber sofas, partitions to dampen noise, vending machines that serve drinks and food. To keep the kiddies busy—and teach them that the supermarket is the place to bring mom—supermarkets have blossomed with circuslike kiddy corners and amusements. Among last week’s offerings: a cartoon theater, now used by 75 supermarkets, that seats up to 40 children, changes its 20-minute show every week.

Vary the Display. In the competition for the customer’s dollar, the markets have become combination drug, dime and appliance stores as well as grocery merchants. Nearly 80% of all supermarkets sell air conditioners, and 76% have music departments. But the stores are having second thoughts about their standardized and monotonous displays, efficient atmosphere. “We’ve probably done ourselves a disservice by packaging tomatoes,” says Kroger President Joseph B. Hall. “I think a housewife would still like to be able to pinch a tomato before she buys, and maybe we should let her. It might spoil a few tomatoes, but we’d probably sell more in the long run.”

There are also doubts about transparent packages, one of the star attractions of the supermarket. In a four-week test in Eastern supermarkets, grocers were surprised to find that shoppers bought more women’s and children’s socks, pants and other soft goods packaged in the old-fashioned cardboard containers. There also was less stealing.

Bake the Cookies. Increased competition is putting new emphasis on time-and-labor-saving machinery. Last week’s delegates looked over a cooky-making machine that turns out up to 350 dozen cookies an hour, an automatic change dispenser and easy-touch cash register manufactured by National Cash Register Co.. and a revolving turntable for checking out and bagging groceries.

To increase efficiency, checkers are going back to school. In Houston, independents and chains send their checkers to a four-week course at the University of Houston called “Grocery Checking with Charm,” the nation’s first such course. It teaches them personality and poise, how to dress and make up properly, how to discuss problems with customers, how to stand on a hard floor all day without becoming grouchy (keep a straight back and a stiff upper lip).